Used to be that college awareness programs focused on a single subject - sex. That was before iPods and PSPs and laptops. Now, schools are trying to make sure students resist the temptation of illegal downloading.

"We run an awareness program, said Courtney Carpenter, associate provost for information technology at The College of William and Mary. The school was recently named the "Hottest Small State School" by Newsweek; last year 100 percent of incoming freshmen toted a laptop. Its awareness campaign includes an electronic newsletter. "There's no excuse for a student saying they didn't know they're not supposed to do this anymore," he said.

Yet many do it anyway. A recent survey of more than 1,000 college and university students by the Business Software Alliance said that more than half think downloading or swapping digital copyrighted files, such as music and movies, without paying for them is OK.

Shelly Jones, a freshman at Old Dominion University, got the “pirating is bad” message during orientation this fall. Even so, she tried to download from sites like KaZaa and LimeWire within days of unpacking in her dorm room. The software was blocked.

That attitude has led record companies to pursue people like Jones and the colleges they attend and to threaten lawsuits. This spring, for example, the Recording Industry of America filed suit against students at 33 colleges, claiming illegal file sharing.

As a response to students like Jones, colleges are looking for ways to stem peer-to-peer downloading. Not only because of the legal issues, but because file swapping can clog schools' networks and quickly infect them with viruses.

Colleges are doing a better job at informing and warning students about illegal downloading, according to a 2004 report from the Campus Computing Project. The project conducts an annual survey to see how colleges use information technology. In its last report, it said 76 percent of the colleges participating in the survey put “appropriate use” policies in place, up from 66 percent in 2003.

Students know about the ban on illegal downloading through an awareness program, he said, as well as a posting on the school Web site. The program will take place sometime this year, he said.

So if tech ed is the new sex ed, then school-sponsored downloading is the new equivalent of free condoms. Just like prophylactics, free downloading is something students are beginning to expect, and some colleges have begun to dispense. Penn State and American University, for example, offer Napster for free.

Hampton University recently signed on to Ruckus. The school, recognized as one of Yahoo's Most Wired Campuses in 2000 and the country's sixth Most Connected College by Forbes.com in 2003, figured downloading into students' dorm expenses. For an additional $40 a semester – charged whether students ask for it or not – students have access to a library of more than 700,000 songs, hit movies, social-networking applications and even on-demand TV shows.

With Ruckus, the school can be almost certain that its networks will remain virus-free from music downloads while students get an additional perk of dorm living.

As more schools go beyond just telling students not to steal music, downloading packages may soon be a given amenity, like a gym or a student center. Norfolk State is considering signing on to Ruckus, too.

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